You know

 how every once in a while

 you do something

 and the little voice inside says 

‘There. That’s it. That’s why you’re here’ … 

and you get a warm glow in your 

because you know it’s true?

 Do more of that.

- Jacob Nordby -

 

 Chaque matin, le jour revit. 

Si le monde n'est fait que de matins, si tout le bonheur du monde est dans les matinées, c'est qu'il y a dans le commencement une promesse d'on ne sait quoi et peut-être de presque tout. 

Si, en dépit de tant de larmes, le monde est une bénédiction, c'est qu'il recommence à chaque instant.

 Ce qu'il y a de mieux dans ce monde, de plus beau, de plus excitant, ce sont les commencements. 

L'enfance et les matins ont la splendeur des choses neuves. 

Naître est toujours un bonheur.

- Jean D'Ormesson -

 Speak to your children
as if they are the wisest, kindest,
most beautiful and magical humans on earth,

 for what they believe
they will become

Brook Hampton 

Art by Loré Pemberton 

 

 

 Happiness is a habit. 

It’s a training. 

With mindfulness, concentration, and insight, we can free ourselves from feelings of restlessness and craving, and realize that, right now, we already have more than enough conditions to be happy.

- Thich Nhat Hanh -

 

 

 He not busy being born

 is busy dying. 

- Bob Dylan -

 

 

 

So true - love it

I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element.

 It is my personal approach that creates the climate.

 It is my daily mood that makes the weather.

 I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous.

 I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration,

 I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. 

In all situations,

 it is my response that decides 

whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, 

and a person is humanized or de-humanized.

 If we treat people as they are, 

we make them worse. 

If we treat people as they ought to be, 

we help them become

 what they are capable of becoming.

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -

 

GOOD AND BAD 

 

 

 May you be surrounded by friends and family, 

and if this is not your lot,

 may the blessings find you in your solitude.

- Leonard Cohen - 

 

 

 

 

 

 People 

don’t always want to be with people. 

It gets tiring.

- Emma Donoghue -

 

 

You will continue to suffer

 if you have an emotional reaction 

to everything that is said to you. 

True power is sitting back

 and observing everything with logic. 

If words control you 

 that means everyone else can control you.

 Breathe and allow things to pass.

-  Bruce Lee -

 

 

This week marks Buddha Doodles 9th birthday!

Here is the first doodle that started it all (full story below):

 

Nine years ago I took pen to paper when everything I held most important to me was dissolving; a relationship, a great job, and financial security.

 

Grasping for something to hold on to, I applied to grad school with a plan to pursue Art Therapy.

 

I jumped easily through the first few administrative hoops and eagerly awaited my orientation day. Then, I got a phone call from UCSB, where I went for undergrad.

 

"We can't release your transcripts. You defaulted on your loan a few years ago. Until you make six months of steady payments, then we can release them" said the administrator.

 

"But I thought I consolidated all of my loans? Why wasn't I told about this?"

 

Then it hit me. UGH! That computer I took a loan out for when I was 19 for school. It was a different kind of loan. And now it had doubled with the accrued interest.

 

My heart sank, and I pleaded in a panic that they reconsider my situation.

 

"I'm sorry, we can't release your transcripts until you make six months' worth of consecutive payments."

 

But with what money? The freelance work that I had lined up for three months fell apart because the publisher canceled the book series. I had no backup plan.

 

I hung up the phone. Suddenly my life felt small. My dreams of Art Therapy came crumbling down along with everything else that was falling apart.

 

Along came the second wave of shame and judgment.

 

"I suck at keeping track of my bills even though I try really hard to stay on top of it all. I'm a loser, and I will never achieve my dreams of being an artist or art therapist."

 

Then the anger.

 

"I've been working since I was a teenager. All I do is work. I was the first person in my family to go to college, and this is what I get treated like?!? I get zero financial support from anyone. Don't even have a family. I'm all alone. The system has set me up for failure."

 

Queue mental breakdown.

 

Somewhere in between the stream of tears and gazing at my studio's ceiling with a raw and open heart, an inner voice calmy urged me to get up from laying on the cold wood floor.

 

The inner whisper lead me to my drawing table.

 

"Doodle a cartoony monk. Maybe something you just read or heard in yoga class. Or a quote you found that makes you feel happy.

 

Make that your daily morning practice. It will help you have one thing you know that will be there for you each day when you wake up. It will set your sail in the right direction."

 

My first doodle was of a jolly monk and I wrote the words "This too shall pass", something that my therapist had told me repeatedly over the years but I didn't quite get it.

 

That day marked the beginning of waking up to my own life's path. I stopped resisting what was falling apart and instead turned my gaze inward, feeling the pain, feeling the joy, and listening for my heart's inner applause.

 

Having shared all of my cartoons and illustrations online since 2001, it was only natural to share the doodle love with others; so I began posting on Tumblr.

 

The Buddha Doodles practice was and still is the first thing I do upon waking up. Creating a picture plus the words soothes my chaotic mind just a little bit and it brings me joy that the cartoons give people something to smile or think about.

 

I'm a terribly slow reader and have difficulty processing auditory information, so making these doodles helps me to absorb the concepts in books about Buddhism, dharma talks, or therapy sessions.

 

This morning, I opened Thich Nhat Hanh's book, "The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching"; I've been inching through it for years. I have a huge pile of scribbles and sketches inspired from the past hundred pages or so.

 

Today I made a couple doodles to help integrate the concepts of Interbeing.

 

Buddha Doodles would not exist without others. It IS because of US, the collective consciousness.

 

I would not have found the teachings hadn't a friend pointed the way when I was in college. Jenna, my housemate, lent me Pema Chodron's book, "When Things Fall Apart."

 

That booked changed something deep inside me. I had never received any teachings on mindfulness or Buddhism prior. I hung on to every word and it gave me hope.

 

Somewhere, deep inside, I stored those teachings. When things really did start to fall apart many years later, the seeds had already been planted, and the teachings sprouted and pointed the way.

 

If Pema didn't have her own breakdown, she wouldn't have become a nun and disciple of Dhögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and she wouldn't have written her book.

 

If my friend Jenna hadn't encountered her own hard times, she wouldn't have shown me Pema's book.

 

If my therapist hadn't introduced me to the concept of "This too shall pass", I may not have made that first Buddha Doodle.

 

We are deeply interconnected, and it is so beautiful. Let us contemplate each day on this truth.

 

You can do it easily by thinking about each step that is necessary for your food to appear in your kitchen.

 

Or imagining the millions of acts of goodness that occur each moment. The billions of people who have just stopped for a red light to allow others to go on the green light.

 

Consider for a moment how we rely on many non-human things and elements to be alive; we need the forests, animals, air, rivers, mountains, oceans.

 

Nearly ten years after penning the first Buddha Doodle, I look back at my younger self with so much more compassion. I am so grateful for the relationships that fell apart, the financial disasters, and that I became so stuck and felt so small because that constriction allowed my love and truth to breakthrough.

 

Trust the whispers.

 

With gratitude,

Molly

 

 Don't play everything (or every time); 

let some things go by… 

What you don't play 

can be more important

 than what you do.

- Thelonious Monk-

 

 

Prince, Tom Petty, Steve Winwood, Jeff Lynne and others -- "While My Gui...

 

 what we resist

 persists

 

 

Lewis Carroll’s original handwritten

 and illustrated manuscript

 for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1864). 

 

 

You don’t owe anyone an explanation 

for taking care of yourself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s when you hide things

that you choke on them.

 

- Charles Bukowski-

 

 

 

 

Distance yourself for a bit.

You will realize a lot.

 

 

 

 

 Not having the urge

 to defend and explain yourself 

is real peace.

 

⠀

 

 

 Today,

 take some time to appreciate yourself—

your strength, 

your uniqueness, 

the journey you've taken so far. 

You're stronger than you realize.

- Tiny Buddha -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Communicate.

Even when it's uncomfortable or uneasy.

One of the best ways to heal,

is simply getting everything out.

 

 

  'give ‘til it helps.'

 #MayaAngelou 

 Give to your family, friends, community 

and give thanks for yourself. 

 

 

Geleide meditatie - beste bodyscan

 

 

 Gedachten en gevoelens zijn geen fouten

 ze vragen niet om healing. 

Ze vragen om omarmd te worden, 

hier, nu 

in de liefdevolle armen van het huidige bewustzijn...

- Jeff Foster -

 

 

 

Every wound leaves a scar 

that tells a story. 

And that story says 

‘I survived.’

 

- Unknown -

 

 

 

 

 You don’t suffer because you have thoughts. 

You suffer because you judge them, 

resist them, 

believe them,

 wallow in them,

 or identify with them.

- Unknown -

 

 

Compassion is born in the moments,

 that despite our outward differences,

 we realize our hearts quiver 

with the same fears, 

insecurities, 

hopes and dreams.

- Jason Garner -

 

 

 

Self-control is strength. 

Calmness is mastery. 

You have to get to the point where your mood doesn’t shift based on the insignificant actions of someone else. 

 Don’t allow others to control the direction of your life.

- Unknown -

De zin van het bestaan 

zit 'm

in de zorg voor de ander.

- Dirk De Wachter - 

Edel Maex - Bodyscan (Mindfulness)

 

Reattach your head 

to your body.

 

 When this body was just born, it was very light. 

As we grow, we tend to get weighed down by worries and lose our freshness and beauty.

 Mindful eating helps us regain this freshness, nourishing our spirits as well as our bodies.

 Eating with appreciation of our own bodies, we eat with more relaxation and joy.

- Thich Nhat Hanh, in ”How to Eat” -

Photo: © Aimee Twigger

 

 

 Niet te beschrijven

Niet te beschrijven
wat een geur doet in je neus
en in het weke van je hersenen,
een bloem,
strandlucht.

Laatst liep ik op de weg
toen langs mij streek een vleug van vroeger,
van potten inkt en rekenen,
wat ik in der eeuwigheid zou zijn vergeten,
ik liep er tegenop.

Men zegt dat van bepaalde vlindersoorten
het reukvermogen
zich uitstrekt over kilometers,
maar of het nu de natuur is
of een oude school,

of een meisje dat in je armen staat
en geurt als zeven jaar geleden
of, als het heeft geregend,
de hartverscheurende kracht van een naaldwoud
- je noemt het,
maar beschrijven kun je het niet.

 – Gerrit Krol (1934-2013) –

 

Beeld: expositie ‘Belle Haleine 

– The scent of art’ in Museum Tinguely in Basel, 2015

 

 

This is what freedom is :

the ability to enjoy and to be exactly

who you are at this moment, 

without suppressing yourself 

in the form of self-judgment.

A bird is a bird.

A human is a human.

You are you.

- don Miguel Ruiz Jr. - 

 

 

I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. 

 It is my personal approach that creates the climate.

 It is my daily mood that makes the weather. 

I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous.

 I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. 

In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. 

If we treat people as they are, we make them worse.

 If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -

 

 

Don't confuse having less 

with being less,

having more 

with being more,

or what you have 

with who you are.

- Noah Benshea - 

 

 

 

 

 The sky isn't more beautiful if you have perfect skin.

 Music doesn't sound more interesting if you have a six-pack

. Dogs aren't better company if you're famous.

 Pizza tastes good regardless of your status. 

The best of life exists beyond the things we are encouraged to crave.

- Tiny Buddha -

 

 

 

 

De oerwond

de invloed van onze jeugdtrauma's 

 

 

Londra nebbia, 1947 

@ Hans Selvaggio 

 

 

 

 

 Je hoeft niets aan niemand te bewijzen.

 Je bent niet het middelpunt van het universum. 

Mensen zijn bezig met hun eigen problemen. 

- www.verkenjegeest.com -

 

 

 © Niilas Nordenswan Photography 

 

– Balanced (Canada goose)

 

 

 

 No one will understand you. 

It is not, ultimately, that important. 

What is important is that you understand you.

- Matt Haig, The Humans -

 

The Red Hand Files

Hey first I wanna say really like your music i have lost my beautiful wife in cancer and my dear brother in covid 19 my question to you is how keep you going on after lost your son its hard sometimes to keep going on with life. MATTI, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN

Dear Matti,   There is little to say to someone who has lost a loved one that is of itself any real help. That has been my experience. Language falls short before the immensity of the experience of grief. There are simply not the words. My well-meaning and desperately worried friends would speak into my grief, using words that made no sense. They would tell me that my son lived in my heart, for example, but I genuinely did not understand these words because when I searched my heart I found nothing but chaos and despair.   One desperate morning, however, I did the most simple of things and perhaps this can help you with the loss of your wife, and your brother, more than my words. I sat by myself, in a quiet space, and called upon my son by name. I closed my eyes and imagined lifting him from my heart — this tormented place in which I was told he lived — and I positioned him outside of my body, next to me, beside me. I said, “You are my son and now you are beside me.” These few words had a powerful, vibrational effect, and this simple act of imagination was the first step in a process that would eventually lead me back to the world. By performing this act I was temporarily released from the rational world, a merciless place that gave me no peace, and given access to an impossible realm where I could form an increasingly resolute relationship with the spiritual idea of my lost child.   I began to feel Arthur’s presence. I talked to him. He talked to me. I took him with me wherever I went. I toured Europe and America with the ‘In Conversations’ show and he sat with me in my dressing room, or later at night in my hotel, or he escorted me onto stage and stood there beside me. I felt emboldened by his constructed presence, or perhaps true presence — who knows? What did it matter? I felt increasingly empowered, unafraid, as I allowed him to accompany me out of my boundless grief. Sometimes, on stage, I would look out at the audience and feel a collective spiritual influence attending to everyone. It was a deeply powerful experience and testament to the restorative force of our imaginings — that child of God, that divine invention — rescuing me from my catastrophic heart and in doing so freeing himself from the convulsion of my grief.   Matti, forgive me if this makes no sense to you, but perhaps there is a way to summon your wife and dear brother and release them from your despair so that they can attend to you — allow them to become your spiritual companions in that impossible realm, to look after you in their imagined presence, and guide you forward until things get better. For they do, in time, they do.   Love, Nick    Copyright © 2020 Nick Cave Productions, All rights reserved.